The First Step...

Hello everyone! I have been out of the game a while when it comes to my blog as things got busier outside of my world of chess over the summer. I'm now back with the goal of analysing every rapid game that I have played on lichess, usually at 10+0 since the start of the pandemic (yes, other sites are available ) which at present number around 215. Hopefully, this will throw up some interesting positions and themes that we can all learn from. Now without further ado we start with game number 1, where we will look at focusing on key moments in a game:

This is first key decision for black in the game. In fact, whether to trade a bishop for a knight on f3 or f6 is often an interesting strategic decision! When you are learning the game, you often learn about the power of the two bishops but then again, there are always positions where you would prefer the knight or simply to get rid of a bad bishop...

What are your thoughts here?

This is our second key moment of the game for black. He has forced weaknesses the black kingside and has great central control but where would you go from here?

And I'm slightly embarrassed to say that I resigned here. Realistically, only white should be able to win but black can certainly put up a good defence. I can only assume I was frustrated with my previous poor play - it just goes to show that an advantage can evaporate in a moment so it's important to identify when those key moments are!